Andrew Magness met his wife, Paisley, while they were both working in Hickory, North Carolina. Paisley, an artist with a degree in textiles, had traded in the artist’s life in Asheville for a corporate job, while Andrew had left his home in New York City to take a position at Lenoir Rhyne University. Neither of them really felt at home in Hickory and were looking to make new friends. They decided to meet for coffee, and the connection was instant. The couple married and found their way to Winston-Salem, where they bought a home in a neighborhood.
Eventually work took them to Winston-Salem, where they traded in their historic home in Morganton, North Carolina for one in a more traditionally modern neighborhood. There, they never really felt they fit in. When Paisley took a job last autumn in textile design and engineering, she knew the long commute would not be tenable long-term, and so they began looking for their new home.
Paisley’s love of historic homes began in college. Before earning her degree in textiles she studied interior design with a focus on historic preservation. Though she would not go on to use the skills and knowledge she gained professionally, a passion was ignited that has endured. She attended Savannah College of Art and Design (in Savannah, Georgia) and there came to appreciate the historic homes that crowd the country’s largest historic district as well as the communities that naturally develop around them.
It’s Andrew’s belief that Paisley’s passion for historic architecture has rubbed off on him. For him it’s the craftsmanship, the attention to detail, and the quality of honest materials that makes them special, but he’s also fascinated with the history behind them. “What can I say?” he says. “They’re just an addiction!”
The couple’s search for a new home eventually took them to a listing on Zillow. They had never heard of Danville before, but the historic homes they were seeing listed drew their attention and it was so close to her new job she knew they needed to do more investigating. When Paisley found the home at 134 Sutherlin Avenue, it was love at first sight. “Even the interior colors looked like they’d been personally chosen for me,” she says. The very next day they took a drive to Danville and fell instantly in love. The more she and Andrew learned about Danville and its efforts at revitalization and preservation, the more they felt this was the place for them.
The P.F. Conway house held an especial appeal to Paisley for its resemblance to a home she had admired as a child in Blowing Rock. The house was locally famous for the preservation efforts that had been made to save and relocate it, and she spent hours as a child building models of it. When she found the house on Sutherlin Avenue, she felt as if she had found her dream house. “I still can’t quite believe it’s real,” she says.
Initially Paisley and Andrew were intimidated by the upkeep of such a house, not to mention the repairs that were still required to be done, but when they visited the house for the first time, the house seemingly spoke to them.
“I’ve never stepped onto a porch and felt more like it was home than with that house,” Andrew says, and the decision to make it their own was made then and there.
Apart from their careers, the couple, both together and individually, have a great many interests. Andrew works in the construction industry and enjoys carpentry. Paisley is an artist through and through and even has a small jewelry making business.
When asked what advice they would give anyone considering buying a historic home in Danville, particularly in the Old West End, she says, “Do it now!! Homes in the OWE are currently remarkably affordable, but we don’t see it staying that way. Don’t miss your chance!”
We are so excited to have such a vibrant addition to our neighborhood and to see the P.F. Conway house be passed into such appreciative and capable hands. Welcome Andrew Magness and Paisley Holloway-Magness to the Old West End and to Danville!
